Traces of Time

An elegant, understated charm runs through the furniture of Hung-Ming Chen and Chen-Yen Wei. With clean lines and gentle curves, their tables and chairs feel both effortless and painstakingly designed. Afteroom, the couple’s Stockholm-based studio, has been winning widespread acclaim across Europe and Asia, and even earned a spot on Architonic’s 2016-17 list of the world’s top 100 designers.

When Chen and Wei moved from Taiwan to Sweden in 2006, they planned to stay for just two years, while Chen completed his master’s at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts, and Design. Twelve years later they’re still there, making furniture and providing interior design consulting. “We were quite naive, and didn’t think too much before we came here—which was probably a good thing,” they recall. “Otherwise, we couldn’t have accomplished a thing.”

In a country where furniture design is something of a national obsession, standing out is no mean feat. Working in Stockholm makes it easier for them to meet with their clients, many of whom are based in Europe. Still, they note, “we miss our families—and the food—back in Taiwan every day.”

Afteroom’s minimalism echoes the design of the early and mid-twentieth century. Though they frequently cite Germany’s Bauhaus movement as inspiration, the couple has never thought of their designs as having any particular regional roots, whether in Europe or in Asia.

Rather, they focus solely on how easy their furniture is to use, and how it looks with the passage of time. “The only thing we care about is whether the piece can be both used practically and maintained aesthetically,” they say.

The Afteroom chair, one of the studio’s signature items, has an appealing simplicity: the curvature of the legs echoes the circular seat, while the bar that connects the backrest also joins the legs. Similarly, their sideboard uses striking vertical lines that catch the eye without adding visual clutter.

The core of Chen and Wei’s design philosophy lies in what they call “advocating the traces of time.” This means creating objects that don’t become outdated or shopworn but improve as they age. “A great design should be something that constantly arouses your desire to keep it in your life, something that you really can’t get tired of looking at,” they explain. To enhance an object’s aesthetics, they eliminate unnecessary elements to achieve a pared-down simplicity. “The purpose is to keep the work timeless, and to let it remain neutral rather than burdensome, so the user won’t easily grow tired of it and discard it.”